The Kitchen Partners with the Louvre and New York Review Books for Immersive Poetry Installation

The Kitchen presents At the Louvre (J__anuary 15–24__) (Gallery hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 12–6pm, Free) in collaboration with musée du Louvre and New York Review Books. First a royal palace, then a museum, the Louvre has inspired poets for centuries – from Renaissance authors to modern day practitioners of the spoken word. Authors, thinkers, and artists are inspired by the Louvre’s collection representing cultures around the world and across millenaries. These thinkers and writers wander the rooms of the Louvre, contemplate its masterpieces, and their context within and beyond the museum. As part of its contemporary programs, the Louvre has launched initiatives that bring together these thinkers, artists, and authors along with members of its staff and communities to read the museum anew.

At the Louvre is part of this ensemble, an initiative that led to a book published in 2024. Celebrated poets from around the world were each invited to compose a new piece about the palace-museum, writing in the language of their own and translated into French and English. The writers represent diverse geographies and generations – the youngest are in their twenties, the oldest in their nineties. They evoke the museum’s artworks, staircases, corridors, and the many lives and spirits contained within. Some writers look at a detail from a painting; others speak to the passing of time encapsulated at the Louvre. The book came out in French with Seghers and in English with New York Review Books, marking both publishing houses’ first collaboration with the Louvre.

To complement this dual language publication, a soundtrack was composed, in which 95 of the 102 poets read their poem in their own tongue, thereby making a statement for an open-ended perception of the museum and, with it, a multiple approach to humankind. Each poet states their name at the beginning of their reading, enabling listeners to find their way through the opacity of languages they may be unfamiliar with. Meaning is never a mere given, it must be experienced and discovered: such is the lesson of poetry.

This soundtrack is an experimental, performative piece, in which voices are heard across cultures and times – echoing through the many lives of art. This sound piece premiered in the medieval Louvre, the inner sanctum of the institution. An immaterial marker of humanity, it was designed to travel. Its first step outside the walls of the Louvre will be at The Kitchen, opening the Winter/Spring 2026 program. The Kitchen, as a central institution for performing arts and experimentations across mediums, is the ideal space for an exhibition of such a sound piece – one conceived in dialogue with a New York publishing house.

For ten days, visitors will be able to listen to the four-hour recording in a loop, finding their way across languages they know, others they do not; copies of the publication will be on hand, enabling listeners to navigate the meaning and negotiate their relationship with other cultures. Artworks from the museum and the museum itself are brought into central focus, and their impact reverberates within and beyond the borders of the institution. This program is organized by Donatien Grau and Nicolas Marbeau (musée du Louvre), with Antoine Caro (Seghers) and Edwin Frank (NYRB).

Contributors

ABD AL MALIK, France, French

ALI AL ATTAR Irak, Arabic

NUJOOM ALGHANEM United Arab Emirates, Arabic

RACHAEL ALLEN United Kingdom, English

JEAN D'AMÉRIQUE Haïti / France, French

ANTONELLA ANEDDA Italy, Italian

RAE ARMANTROUT United States of America, English

SIMON ARMITAGE United Kingdom, English

LINDA MARIA BAROS Romania / France, French

POLINA BARSKOVA Russia / United States of America, English

TAHAR BEN JELLOUN Morocco / France, French

JAY BERNARD United Kingdom, English

EMILY BERRY United Kingdom, English

ZÉNO BIANU France, French

JACOB BROMBERG United States of America, English

HANNAH BROOKS-MOTL United States of America, English

MERCEDES CEBRIÁN Spain, Espagnol

PATRICK CHAMOISEAU France, French

CECILA CHAPDUELH France, Occitan

BARBARA CHASE-RIBOUD United States of America / France, English

LOUISE CHENNEVIÈRE France, French

PIERRE CHOPINAUD France, French

ALI COBBY ECKERMANN Yankunytjatjara (yunkun-cha-charra) from South Australia, English

ANN COTTEN Austria, French

JACQUES DARRAS France, French

NAJWAN DARWISH Palestine, Arabic

PAULINE DELABROY-ALLARD France, French

HÉLÈNE DORION Canada, French

MICHAEL EDWARDS United Kingdom, English / French

JEAN FRÉMON France, French

ALBANE GELLÉ France, French

PETER GIZZI United States of America, English

ROBERT GLÜCK United States of America, English

KIM GORDON United States of America, English

STEFAN HERTMANS Belgia, Flemish

FANNY HOWE United States of America, English

SIMON JOHANNIN France, French

NUNO JÚDICE Portugal, Portuguese

SYLVIE KANDÉ Senegal / France, French

JOHN KEENE United States of America, English

ISTVÁN KEMÉNY Hungary, Hungarian

WAYNE KOESTENBAUM United States of America, English

ABDELLATIF LAÂBI France / Morocco, French

NICK LAIRD Northern Ireland, English

AMADOU LAMINE SALL Senegal, Wolof

LAN LAN China, Chinese

YITZHAK LAOR Israel, Hebrew

DOROTHEA LASKY United States of America, English

MONICA DE LA TORRE Mexico / United States of America, English

GÉRARD LE GOUIC Breton (France), French

LISETTE LOMBÉ Belgia, French

LULJETA LLESHANAKU Albania, Albanese

TEDI LÓPEZ MILLS Mexico, Spanish

MAIALEN LUJANBIO Basque Country (Euskal Herria), Basque Language (Euskera)

GÉRARD MANSET France, French

ARVIND KRISHNA MEHROTRA India, English

KARTHIKA NAÏR India / France, English

VIVEK NARAYANAN India, English

BENA NIMROD Republic of Chad, French

ALICE NOTLEY United States of America, English

GAËLLE OBIÉGLY France, French

EUGENE OSTASHEVSKY Russia / United States of America, English

NORBERT PAGANELLI France, French

FANI PAPAGEORGIOU British poet of Greek descent, English

CHARLES PENNEQUIN France, French

SERGE PEY France, French

JANA PRIKRYL Canadian-American poet who was born in the former Czechoslovakia, English

OXMO PUCCINO Republic of Mali / France, French

OLIVIER PY France, French

MARIE DE QUATREBARBES France, French

ARIANA REINES United States of America, English

BLANDINE RINKEL France, French

ANDRÉS SÁNCHEZ ROBAYNA Spain, Spanish

ALBERT ROIG Spain, Catalan

MARTIN RUEFF France, French

JAMES SACRÉ France, French

BARRY SCHWABSKY United States of America, English

RYOKO SEKIGUCHI Japan, French

YOMI ṢODE Nigeria / United Kingdom, English

ARIEL SPIEGLER Brazil / France, French

ALEŠ ŠTEGER Republic of Slovenia, Slovene

FIONA SZE-LORRAIN France (born in Singapore), English

VÉRONIQUE TADJO Ivory Coast / France, French

ESTHER TELLERMANN France, French

CAMILLE DE TOLEDO France, French

KRISZTINA TÓTH Hungary, Hungarian

MILÈNE TOURNIER France, French

ANDREAS UNTERWEGER Austria, German

ANDRÉ VELTER France, French

JAN WAGNER Germany, German

WANG YIN China, Chinese

ELIZABETH WILLIS United States of America, English

XI CHUAN China, Chinese

JEFFREY YANG United States of America, English

CYNTHIA ZARIN United States of America, English

Funding Credits

At The Louvre is made possible through Leadership Support from Elisa Nuyten.

Additionally, The Kitchen’s programs are made possible in part with support from The Kitchen’s Board of Directors, The Kitchen Global Council, Leadership Fund, and the Director’s Council, as well as through generous support from The Amphion Foundation, Inc., Bloomberg Philanthropies, The Cowles Charitable Trust, Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, Ford Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, Marta Heflin Foundation, The New York Community Trust, Jerome Robbins Foundation, Lambent Foundation Fund, a fund of Tides Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Ruth Foundation For The Arts, The Fan Fox and Leslie R.Samuels Foundation, and in part by public funds from the Manhattan Borough President, the National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. The Kitchen acknowledges the generous support provided by the Collaborative Arts Network New York (CANNY). As a coalition of small to mid-sized multidisciplinary arts organizations, CANNY is committed to strengthening the infrastructure of arts nonprofits throughout New York.

About The Kitchen

Founded in 1971 as an artist-driven collective, The Kitchen today reaffirms and expands upon its originating vision as a dynamic cultural institution that centers artists, prioritizes people, and puts process first. Programming in a kunsthalle model that brings together live performances, exhibition making, and public programming under one roof, The Kitchen empowers its audiences and communities to think creatively and radically about what it means to shape a multivalent and sustainable future in art.

The Kitchen seeks to cultivate and hold space for wild thought, risky play, and innovative and experimental making, encouraging artists and cultural workers alike to defy boundaries and sending them into the world to remake art history and catalyze creative change. Among the artists who have presented significant work at The Kitchen are Muhal Richard Abrams, Laurie Anderson, ANOHNI, Robert Ashley, Charles Atlas, Kevin Beasley, Beastie Boys, Gretchen Bender, Dara Birnbaum, Anthony Braxton, John Cage, Lucinda Childs, Julius Eastman, Philip Glass, Leslie Hewitt, Darius Jones, Joan Jonas, Bill T. Jones, Devin Kenny, Simone Leigh, Ralph Lemon, George Lewis, Robert Longo, Robert Mapplethorpe, Sarah Michelson, Tere O’Connor, Okwui Okpokwasili, Nam June Paik, Charlemagne Palestine, Sondra Perry, Vernon Reid, Arthur Russell, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Spiegel, Talking Heads, Greg Tate, Cecil Taylor, Urban Bush Women, Danh Vō, Lawrence Weiner, Anicka Yi, and many more.

Website: thekitchen.org

Instagram: @TheKitchen_NYC

About New York Review Books

New York Review Books is dedicated to publishing an eclectic mix of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from different eras and times and of various sorts. Many of these titles are works in translation. NYRB Poets, which publishes the English-language edition of At the Louvre, features the work of poets from around the world, classical and modern, ancient and contemporary, in elegant, pocket-size editions.

About The Musée du Louvre

The musée du Louvre ranks amongst the world’s most beloved and celebrated museums. Since opening 233 years ago, it has been the home of the public and particularly of artists, which have made it into their home. Set in the king of France’s palace, it has been part of history for the last 800 years, from monarchy to Revolution, empire and Republic. Collecting in nine departments, Near-Eastern, Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, Roman Antiquities, European Paintings, Sculptures, Drawings, Decorative Arts, Arts of Islam,Arts of Byzantium and the Near-Eastern Christians, it is also a place of research, education and creativity on museums and the worlds of art.

Press contact for the musée du Louvre: Coralie James, coralie.james@louvre.fr

Press contact for New York Review Books: Abigail Dunn, adunn@nybooks.com

Press contact for The Kitchen: Gilberto Rosa-Duran, gilberto@thekitchen.org and Madison Morales, madison.morales@purplepr.com and thekitchen@purple.com